Mobilize International Masses to End Pandemic Capitalism with Communist Revolution

Mobilize Masses here ♦ Countering Capitalists’ Blame Game here ♦ Let’s Take Personal Responsibility here ♦

Mobilize International Masses to End Pandemic Capitalism with Communist Revolution

SEATTLE (US) — Workers at our summer BBQ debated “vaccine hesitancy.” Everyone saw through the lie that Covid spikes were caused by migrants. But one close friend said, “I can’t believe that only 14% of those unvaccinated are rabid anti-vaxxers.”

Comrades and friends pointed out the obsession of the capitalist media with blaming “stupid” workers. The Seattle Times runs several columns a week telling us to blame the unvaccinated for the pandemic. They ignore capitalism’s inability to organize a vaccine mobilization that works. The Lt. Governor of Texas blames African Americans for the low vaccination rate in that state, even though US Census Bureau data show that unvaccinated white Texans outnumber unvaccinated black Texans roughly 3 to 1.

We agreed that the failure of the US capitalists’ vaccine distribution program reflects capitalism’s racism, nationalism, individualism, and quest for profits.

We talked about how a communist distribution program, based on mobilized masses, will be successful. Mobilization of masses is one of the keys to public health that only communism can provide.

This collective struggle equipped more comrades and their friends to spread our communist analysis to others. Long-time, relatively inactive comrades and new friends took copies of Red Flag with articles by the party’s healthcare collective to read and distribute. Some took the pamphlet Mobilize the Masses for Communism to study and discuss with friends.

The group enthusiastically supported the remarks of a new comrade who belongs to the healthcare collective. She said, “I think it’d be beneficial to highlight the excess of vaccines we have without giving any to countries (primarily in the global south) who need them. I have family members in Guatemala who’ve told us they have no access to the vaccine.”

Communist Society Will Open New Possibilities

In communism, there will be no hesitancy or distrust when it comes to healthcare from communities of color, who have historically received the worst healthcare services. With communism in place there will be no inequity within the healthcare system.

With community values at the forefront of communism, healthcare laborers and scientists will not be elitist, petit-bourgeois citizens nor will the work be rooted in racist education systems. People will not have to worry about their insurance standing, co-pays or whether they can afford to take time off from work. Black women will not have to fear that their pain is being undermined by their doctors.

Instead, we will all have equal access to scientific information without having to ask for it. Communism will undo the very narratives that create vaccine hesitancy in the first place.

A doctor in the healthcare collective said there will be “no distrust because we will all have medical knowledge in communism and contribute to the collective health.”

Past communists organized to make this happen. A million rural workers were trained as “barefoot doctors” after the Chinese revolution. Their education included half a year of “classroom” work. The other half they labored alongside their co-workers, practicing what they had been taught.   It was not long before barefoot doctors were teaching capitalist-trained doctors the communist way of mass mobilization to end deadly diseases and create a healthier society.

Another friend thought that we needed a little bit of capitalism, a little bit of socialism and a little bit of communism. Comrades argued that this illusion is precisely what will undermine any collective answer.

Both capitalism and socialism maintain production for profit and the wage system, laying the foundation for racism, nationalism, and individualism.

Communist collective production is based on communist relationships, not the competitive drive for profits. Its goal is to provide for the collective needs of the masses. Collective production lays the foundation that opens the possibilities the healthcare collective members talked about.

Working Class: Creators of A New Society, Not Mere Victims

Communist revolution will unleash the power and creativity of our class. Workers’ power, mobilized massively through ICWP communist collectives worldwide, will do far better at learning about, preventing and managing pandemic disease. Communism will resolve the contradiction between science and capitalism by abolishing capitalism itself. Public health, including scientific work, will be a collective activity in the service of the masses.

Communist politics is primary. The communist ability to mobilize masses will free science from capitalism and advance public health in ways the capitalists can’t.

Countering the Capitalists’ Racist, Anti-Working-Class Blame Game

“Recently some colleagues and I were talking about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and how that was primarily being distributed to lower income/BIPOC neighborhoods despite the concern about blood clotting,” said J, a new member of ICWP. “A natural distrust often arises in BIPOC communities when it comes to the government. But what gets me about this vaccine is how many people gloss over the fact that it had to have been extremely calculated. I’m sure that contributes to ‘vaccine hesitancy.’”

She and L, another comrade, were discussing how the White House and the capitalist media try to shift the blame onto those who haven’t gotten a shot. The capitalist approach is that it’s everyone’s “individual responsibility” to get a shot — and if you don’t, it’s on you. At the same time, the system prevents many, many people from getting vaccinated.

Four of L’s friends had fallen into the trap that blamed the “irresponsible” unvaccinated for the continued pandemic. She did some research and was able to convince her friends that the system was to blame.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that only 14% of the U.S. population is committed to refusing vaccines. It says that those who aren’t yet vaccinated are much more likely to be food insecure, have children at home and earn little. They are nearly three times as likely as the vaccinated to have had insufficient food recently.

Vaccination usually requires taking time off work — not just to get the shot but also potentially to recover from the side effects — as well as arranging transportation and figuring out childcare. Missing a few hours of work seems easy to higher-paid workers, but for others it could mean having food for the family versus not.

Those who are unvaccinated are also likely to work in essential jobs like agriculture and manufacturing. They work long hours and may prioritize time with their families or communities when they finally get a break. People with multiple jobs may find it impossible to schedule a shot in between all their shifts.

In communism, the party will prioritize getting all eligible people vaccinated as quickly as possible by mobilizing the masses. Emphasis will be on producing and distributing the vaccine. There will be no food insecurity, no worrying about taking off work and not being able to feed your family.

Let’s Take Personal Responsibility to Fight Collectively for Communism

“Here in the US, we will soon be able to get a Covid booster shot. But that’s not right when so many people around the world can’t even get their first one. Is it ethical to accept the booster?” a comrade wondered.

“It’s capitalism!” a friend responded right away. “They want us to think we can solve problems by our personal choices. But we can’t.”

“If I refuse a third shot, that dose won’t go to someone in India or Honduras,” said the comrade. “When my mother was a child, kids were told to ‘clean their plates because children are starving in Europe.’ Any kid could see that nobody in Europe would get the table scraps whether they were eaten or if they went into the garbage.”

Get the shot if you can, everyone agreed.

“It’s like that with the environment, too,” contributed another comrade. “We’re told to take personal responsibility for how we live but isn’t it like 20 fossil fuel companies that have been responsible for over a third of all greenhouse gas emissions?”

“I choose to live simply,” said the friend, who had arrived at our dinner meeting on their bike. “It makes me feel more in solidarity with most people around the world, but it doesn’t really do them any good. It’s the system that we have to change.”

And we all agreed with that, too.

Collective in Los Angeles (USA)

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